The Rogues Bet On It
by StatsGrandma57
Summary: Wedge Antilles has been studying our favorite couple for three years now. Chapter 4 has the final wager!
1. Chapter 1

THE ROGUES BET ON IT

Chapter 1: Are They Gonna Kiss Already?

(Narrated by Wedge Antilles)

"Did you hear the latest?" Hobbie asks me as we're grabbing kafs. "Solo's bugging out."

"That's crazy talk, you moron," I tell Hobbie. "He just said he was gonna stay about a week ago!"

"Yeah, well, he and the princess made a cargo run on Ord Mantell last week, and I guess he ran into a bounty hunter or three."

"Who'd you hear it from?" I demand.

"The man himself. He was telling Rieekan just a while ago."

"Damn." As if things here on the iceball otherwise known as Hoth weren't sucktastic enough. So what if Solo'd taken all of my money at sabacc? I haven't laughed so much since I was a little kid on Corellia. And as for piloting maneuvers, no one's smoother than the crazy Corellian. He's never mentioned it, but I think he's got military. No one can shoot that accurately without a hella lot of training, and the man does know his way around a blaster.

Granted, Solo wouldn't take a commission. My second cousin, Princess Leia of the space dust of the planet formerly known as Alderaan, was really bugged by that. Don't get me wrong. I like my cousin. She's smart and tough and cool. But she's not exactly the friendliest sentient in the galaxy.

And it's pretty damn obvious to anyone with an IQ above the single digits that my cousin and Solo are hot for each other. Hobbie and I walk along the corridors to the hangar, and who do we run into but Solo and the Princess, squabbling again. We just walk by; everyone does. They're as much a part of the scenery as the snow.

I hear her say something about kissing a Wookiee. I'd pay to see that.

"And here I'd figured they'd have boinked each other by now," Hobbie tells me.

"See, that's their whole problem," I point out. "Everyone around here knows they're crazy for each other. They should just do it already, 'cause everyone knows they want to."

"Who should just do it already?" one of the other Rogues, Grimmy, asks us. Grimmie is a sweet kid but he's got the intelligence of a root vegetable. He's more or less a professional gofer. You know, gofer kaf, gofer sandwiches, gofer parts, that sort of thing. His dad's one of our major spies. Dad grew up in this wealthy family that had a lot of members that backed the Empire. That meant he had access. Problem was, his wife got slaughtered on her way to an underground Rebel meeting. That he meant he got stuck taking care of Grimmy. It's pretty obvious Grimmy embarrasses the hells out of him.

"Don't worry about it," I tell him, patting him on the head. Grimmy's probably sixteen or seventeen, but you wouldn't know it from talking to him. Grimmy just Does Not Get It. "You'll understand when you're older."

"Okay." He walks away. I'm still wondering how his parents got stuck with such a dopey kid. Six billion sperm and that was the fastest swimmer? It's not so much that Grimmy's an idiot. It's more like he's terminally clueless. But the end result's pretty much the same.

"You could use a good kiss!" I can hear Solo shouting to the Princess.

"She sure could," Hobbie says to me, but quietly. We're by the command center and Rieekan, who's like a totally decent guy even if he lacks a sense of humor, doesn't appreciate what we do to stave off fear and boredom when we're in his presence. If he's not there, anything goes, and it usually does. Wartime can do seriously weird things to your brain if you don't do normal stuff.

The biggest thing that keeps this place 'normal' is gossip. And nobody provides fodder for the rumor mill more than the Princess and Solo. You could tell way back when that they were hot for each other. Solo and Skywalker got medals after the Battle of Yavin, and we had a betting pool going on whether or not Solo was gonna dance with her. I handily won 75 credits on that one. A bunch of us tried to get her to dance with us, but she was like no thank you all night long.

And then along comes Mr. Smooth. He got her on the dance floor. Gotta say that he's pretty good at it. I told the other suckers who said no way to pay up, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Plus, I lost a bunch of credits in the last sabacc game I played and it was nice to make some of 'em back.

After the dance was when the insults started being hurled back and forth. They tried to keep 'em to themselves for a while, but then they decided they either needed an audience or they just didn't care. I'm going with option B. The Rogues and I opened a betting pool on when they'd get around to kissing each other. So far, pool remains open, unless there's something we missed, and I doubt that. We'd know.

Like Solo, I'm Corellian, and we're not exactly the most romantic guys in the galaxy, nor are we known for our sensitivity. Solo didn't seem like a rookie, either. A guy that cool probably'd had lots of women, or at least lots of one night stands.

But he never was alone with any other woman on base. Never saw him eat with one, never saw him take one back to that hunk of junk called the _Millennium Falcon. _Instead, it was like they'd seek each other out and they'd say stuff just to piss the other one off. And that's the way it's been for three effing years already.

I happen to know that on the base, there are very few women who wouldn't want to get in bed with Solo. Maybe that's why he's chasing down the Princess - she's the only one not making herself available. Problem is, she's not doing a very good job of hiding how she feels about Solo, and he's not doing a very good job of concealing what he feels about her.

"You still think he's gonna kiss her?" Hobbie says to me.

"Unless they can each grow a brain before the end of the day, I'd say no."

"You gonna put money on that?"

"Only if he sticks around. I got a funny feeling he will."

"You're an idiot. He already said he's out. C'mon, we gotta get some sim time in." Hobbie and I are off for another round of war games.


	2. Chapter 2

THE ROGUES BET ON IT

Chapter 2: Unexpected Rendezvous

(Wedge is our friendly narrator)

We make it to the rendezvous by the skin of our teeth, or gills, or whatever your favorite species breathes with. I'm one of the lucky ones. We lost the battle on Hoth, and in a breathtakingly bad way.

I lost a lot of friends in this battle. We had a most sucktastic day. But we don't get a chance to mourn. We've gotta pull it together because we've gotta turn this thing around, and fast.

We all feel kind of sick. General Rieekan looks the sickest of all.

War isn't glorious. It's actually really horrible.

I look around. Our ranks are so thin right now that we all look like we've got major survivor guilt.

I don't see my cousin among them. The word is that she couldn't make it to her transport and she left with Solo on the _Falcon. _More than likely, Solo, Chewie and the Princess died making their way out. We were heavily under attack by then and I doubt they could make it past the blockade.

Dammit, I hate this war. The only thing that keeps me going is that I hate the Empire even more. When I first joined the Rebellion, I had no idea how long it was going to take. It's taken a lot longer than I ever thought it would.

I can't afford this depression and neither can anyone else.

And what if they made it? If anyone could do it, it's Solo and the Princess.

I decide that until I've got evidence that they're dead, I'm going to keep hoping they come back. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

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We spend the next three weeks drilling and making plans to take out some major Imperial facilities. We haven't had any hassling from the Empire out here, but that always changes. I mean, c'mon, they chased us down on Hoth! Is there any more godsforsaken place than that? Maybe there are, but you'd have to work hard to find one. We're on one of the moons of Corellia, my homeworld.

Corellia's complicated. Lots of Rebels there, but also a lot of people that make their living making weapons systems for the Empire. You take that away from them, you have a lot of pissed off people, and pissed off Corellians are not what you wanna have to deal with. We're notable for our tempers and lack of patience. So much of this war is hurry up and wait and, well, you can see where it might be difficult.

Did I mention that all the men are good looking and virile?

I'm working on a target map, and I feel a rap on my shoulder. It's Gilde, one of the communications specialists (and not bad in bed).

"Princess Leia made it back," she says to me. "Came in on the _Millennium Falcon."_

"Thanks." I feel a tremendous amount of relief. She winks at me. Nothing awkward; every once in a while, we all need to feel normal and she and I do feeling normal with sex. We're just pals, no strings.

"Captain Solo isn't with her," she adds.

What the hells?!

"Commander Skywalker and some sleazebag named Calrissian came with them. Gotta get."

I request permission from Admiral Ackbar to see my cousin. He consents without arguing. I'm not doing anything that important. Apparently she's in medical; Skywalker lost a hand is the word on the street.

I'm the only so called blood family she's got, so I head on over to the medbay.

I see her in a chair, her head down. The Princess looks like she's checked out and that's not her.

"Hey, cuz," I say quietly to her. "What's going on?"

She finally looks up at me. "Can we go somewhere more private?"

Privacy's not what military bases are designed for but I'm sure we can figure out something. We find that there's a closet near the dining hall and we steal a couple chairs.

"You okay?" I ask her.

"No. I'm not."

"Heard you came in on the _Falcon._"

"Yes."

"Can I ask what happened to Han?"

She lowers her head and covers her eyes. "He was given to a bounty hunter. By Vader." She spits the name out as if she'd tasted something vile.

She doesn't have to say anything more. It's pretty damn obvious she's in love with him. And I bet wherever they were, they didn't spend the whole time fighting.

"How's Luke?"

"Vader cut off his left hand. Which is, unfortunately, Luke's dominant hand. But the med droids are confident that they can do a fully functional prosthesis."

I nod. "That's good. We need him. I heard you came with someone else, some Calrissian dude."

She raises her head and her eyes flash with anger. I'm kind of relieved. Anger means she's coming back.

"He screwed us over. He says he's going to locate Han."

Doesn't sound like she much likes him. "How'd you meet up with this douche?"

"It's a long story. I'll tell you about it when I'm up to it."

"Anything I can do?" I ask her.

She shakes her head.

"I'm around if you need me."

She looks up a little and whispers thank you.

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Later on, there's a sabacc game. I sit in and drink cheap Alderaanian ale (our booze budget is small, so we concentrate on quantity versus quality). There's the usual trash talk and cheap laughs. Now don't get me wrong. I like trash talk and cheap laughs as much as the next guy. There's a lot of boredom in war and you have to figure out how to survive it, maybe even more than how you have to deal with being afraid.

"So Antilles, I hear Solo got turned into a dining room table," Wes pipes up. I got that one from Skywalker, who's still in the medbay but should be back on active duty soon.

Grimmy's there and he frowns. "How do you turn a person into a piece of furniture?"

Derek looks over at him. "It's a very complicated procedure. You wouldn't understand." This gets a bunch of good laughs from everyone but Grimmy. Grimmy doesn't understand that we're not laughing with him, we're laughing at him.

"Idiot's Array," Derek calls out. The rest of us just groan and toss in our chips.

"It's so effing boring here without the princess and Solo duking it out daily," Wes commented.

"You think anything happened on their little side trip?" Kasan leers. "I mean, they got here like three weeks late. If I was locked up on a freighter for two weeks with a woman, well, let's just say I'd do more than look at her."

I'm damn sure something did, but for some reason I can't bring myself to joke about it.

"Should we lay down a bet?" Wes asks.

Normally, I can't resist a wager, but I'm not up for it tonight.

"Sorry, dude. Count me out."


	3. Chapter 3

THE ROGUES BET ON IT

Chapter 3: Betting on the Pirate

(Wedge is back)

It's getting late. I pass by the command center on my way back to my quarters.

The Princess is there. She's always there lately. It's been three months since she got here, and she's been a mess. She's nearly always at the command center but she's totally not there. It's like she's a zombie now. We've had some successful raids and battles since she got back but that's not doing it for her. We invite her to play cards, watch holos, drink beer, dance, the stuff we do to relax. She refuses. Politely, but she never shows up.

General Rieekan tells her she has to go back to her quarters and not return to work for twenty-four hours. She protests but Rieekan gives you an order, you don't stand there and argue with him.

"Hey cuz," I call to her, trying to be quiet about it but I wanna get her attention.

She looks up at me. I've never seen anyone look so sad and lost.

It's been three months since Calrissian and Chewie left to find Solo. No one's heard anything from either of them. All we know is that apparently Solo owed major credits to Jabba the Hutt. The Hutts are spread out all over the galaxy, they live in clans, the clans shift all the time, so hunting Jabba down is a lot harder than hitting a two meter target with one shot.

I mostly know about this because Skywalker tells me. He's asked me to not blab how messed up this is making the Princess. He confirms what I've already guessed: she's in love with Solo. And if you can believe in the Force, Solo's feeling the same way about her.

I can believe that. Solo could have had damn near any woman he wanted, but he only wanted Leia. You could be Grimmy and know that.

I just tell her that if she needs a friend, I'm still around.

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Skywalker joins me in the sims a couple days later.

"How's Leia?" I ask him.

He shakes his head. "She got permission to leave to look for Han. She's on the supply transport leaving tomorrow, and I've got a really bad feeling about this."

"I'm shocked. Rieekan and Mothma agreed to it?"

"Riekkan overruled Mothma."

"No word from Calrissian or Chewie?"

"Nada. Zip. Zilch."

I look straight at him.

"I'm not getting anything saying he's dead."

"You could be wrong."

"Sadly, that's true. I wish I could help her figure out where he is."

I'm not schooled in The Force, and not really sure how it works. I kind of think of it as having an inside track, but I'm probably wrong about that.

"Anything from Calrissian or Chewie?"

He shakes his head no.

He tells me, "I told her that when she knows something, I'll come and help her."

I think he's crazy, but I'm gonna keep my mouth shut.

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I'm with the other Rogues after we're planning an attack on a mining colony that's held by the Empire. It's not a big win but slow and steady (we're told) wins the race.

Slow and steady are not generally words pilots are comfortable with, so of course everyone's frustrated. Fortunately, there's beer for that. We're self medicating in the mess area, and while it's pretty grim, at least we're not freezing to death like we were on Hoth.

It's also the first anniversary of when Arhul Narra, the founder and leader of the Rogues, ended up dead. Narr wouldn't want us mourning, so we drink to him. There's never gonna be anyone like The Boss. It's how Skywalker got his job. The thing is that wherever Narr is, what irritates him most is that he died on a supply run, not in battle. I'm sure he's pissed off somewhere in the galaxy.

Skywalker's awfully quiet tonight. Last time I've seen him quiet was when he was a newbie. But we hassled him appropriately, and he's usually friendly and funny. Not like him to be this way, certainly not while we're having a beer bash in honor of our founder. (That's the official reason, if anybody asks. Not that we need a reason.)

"You okay?" I ask him.

"I'm fine. Worried about Leia."

"Leia's pretty tough." I don't blame him for worrying, though. I offered to get permission to take her to where she wanted to go, but she said she didn't have enough information and didn't want to put anyone else at risk.

"I'm kinda surprised Riekkan let her go. We're a little light on personnel," I tell him. It's a thought I don't like having but somehow, it never goes away.

"The General was close to her dad. I suspect that had something to do with it," Luke tells me. "He also likes Han."

"Solo's good people. I miss that crazy pirate."

"Me, too." He and Skywalker are close. I'm not as close to Solo but I liked working with him.

"I'd wager that if anyone can get outta this, it's Solo," Jansen offers up.

"What's the wager?" I swear, if we ever win this war, we're gonna be The Compulsive Gamblers formerly known as Rogue Squadron.

"2000 credits," Jansen says coolly.

"You know, you're not a very good gambler," Celchu points out. "And what if he doesn't survive the hibernation?"

"Solo can do it," Klivian shoots back.

"Maybe with a little help from his friends," Skywalker says, trying to keep his tone neutral. "But I'll bet on it."

"Okay, 2000 credits it is," Jansen says. "Pay up, dudes."


	4. Chapter 4

THE ROGUES BET ON IT

Chapter 4: The Princess and the Pirate

(Wedge Antilles)

"Antilles!" Klivian is running towards me. "Did you hear?"

"Hear what? I hear lots of things, including your big mouth."

Klivian laughs. "The Princess and Solo are back!"

"Pay up, loser!" I'm gonna be rich tonight. But it's not just the money. Okay, the money's a good thing. But seeing the Princess and the pirate is gonna be great.

"Where the hells are they?" I demand.

"Being debriefed by Rieekan and Dodonna," Klivian tells me. "They'll be at the meeting later. Calrissian and Skywalker, too."

"Wow, old home week! Can't wait to see 'em. Bet they've got some great stories to tell."

"I'm sure. Later, dude."

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The Empire's been building a new and improved Death Star. Hardly a secret. But till now, no one's been able to get hold of the architectural plans. It's surrounded by this massive energy field and no one's figured out where the energy shield's controls are.

I see Solo and the Princess sitting down in front a few people down from me. I wave, and I get a huge smile from both.

Yep, they've definitely done it. More than once. The way they sit near each other, the way they look at each other, you can tell. And it's more than boinking. They look like they're truly madly deeply in love with each other.

Mon Mothma's up, so time to pay attention.

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It's a crazy ass mission, but crazy ass missions are Rogue Squadron's stock in trade. Give us the impossible and we'll make it happen.

And leading the Rogues? None other than General Lando Calrissian. Apparently he's a friend of Solo's, so right there, you gotta wonder. I'm told he's mostly a scam artist. The Rogues don't give a womp rat's ass so long as you can do the job.

Ackbar gives the final instructions and we disperse to meet Calrissian. He's a friendly guy. Likes the cape a little much, and you can tell he's a fancy ass dresser, but he's intelligent and funny and completely insane. The Rogues like that in a person.

And for the ground crew on Endor, Solo's the lead. My teeth nearly fell out of my mouth when Madine called him general. But he'll be good at it. The fact that he's as crazy as any Rogue is one of his best qualities.

While Solo's putting his command crew together, Skywalker strolls in. It's good to see him, even if the black outfit isn't exactly regulation flight gear. He joins Solo's command crew, along with Chewie and yes, the Princess.

Word on the street is that Skywalker's now a Jedi knight. Talk about crazy.

We'll have to catch up later. We've got a mission to fly.

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The attack was one of the craziest I'd ever been in, crazy even by Rogue standards (which are very high, by the way). It got a little worrisome when Solo was taking longer than expected to get the shield down, but Calrissian was better than I thought he would be. We lost no Rogues; in fact, we had the fewest number of casualties of any battle in the entire war.

And, we blew up the Death Star, Part 2. This was the definitive military victory we needed to crush the Empire, and crush it we did. I felt as if I was on such a high. Adrenaline rushes after battle are common, but this was the good kind.

It was nearly dusk when the Rogues landed on Endor. I was still riding high. All of us were. Fireworks were going off in every corner of the galaxy, and there was enormous cheering and loud music and as we flew into orbit. I've never been so excited in my life!

I think over the last four years of my life. I lost my family. I lost friends. I lost the girl I always figured I'd marry. So the victory's kind of bittersweet.

I have no idea what I'm gonna do next. Probably be a peacekeeper. I can't imagine a life other than being a soldier.

But tonight, it's party time!

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We drink and dance and drink and laugh and drink and hug and drink and eat barbecue and drink and drink and drink.

I look around, see who's dancing with whom. I notice that Skywalker hooked up with a hot redhead. I'll cut in later. She's a number, that's for sure.

I also catch a glimpse of Solo and the Princess. They dance with no one else. The look between 'em is what I remember love feeling like.

"They're gonna marry each other," I say to the other Rogues.

"Oh, sure!" "As if!" And so on. They're laughing their asses off. I'm drunk as a thresel skunk and I'm not the most intoxicated one here.

"Nope. They're gonna get married. 5000 credits says they're gonna do it!" I'm confident enough to put up that much, and it ain't just the liquor talking.

"Be prepared to lose your shirt," I'm warned.

Believe me, I wouldn't have thrown up that much money if I wasn't totally sure.

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Six weeks later, I get my money back.


End file.
